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Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Little Busters! (リトルバスターズ!, Ritoru Basutāzu!?) is a Japanese visual novel developed by Key which was originally released rated for everyone as a limited edition version on July 27, 2007 playable on the PC as a DVD; a regular edition, also rated for everyone, followed on September 28, 2007. Little Busters! is Key's sixth game, along with other titles such as Kanon, Air, and Clannad. Despite the first two releases of Little Busters! having a rating for everyone, there were still some suggestive computer graphics that provided fan service shots. An adult version of the game entitled Little Busters! Ecstasy was released on July 25, 2008, unlike Kanon and Air, which were first released with adult content and then had later versions with such content removed. The title Little Busters! comes from a group of friends in the story named the Little Busters which the main protagonist, Riki Naoe, has been a member of since childhood.The gameplay in Little Busters! follows a plot line which offers pre-determined scenarios with courses of interaction, and focuses on the appeal of the six female main characters, which increases to nine in Ecstasy. There are additional minigames added into the gameplay, such as sequences that resemble fighting games, or baseball games, which serve to give the characters experience, obtain accessories to use during battle, and improve their statistics. The game had an extended developmental staff which incorporated new members to the roles of art director, scenario writer, and to work on the game's soundtrack.There have been four manga adaptations based on Little Busters!, the first serialized in ASCII Media Works' Dengeki G's Magazine, the second serialized in ASCII Media Works' Dengeki G's Festival! Comic, the third in Kadokawa Shoten's Comp Ace, and the fourth again in Dengeki G's Festival! Comic. A series of illustrated short stories were also serialized in Dengeki G's Magazine. An Internet radio show began in June 2008 hosted by the voice actors of Rin and Kyousuke Natsume from the visual novel; the voice of Kudryavka Noumi joined as a host in March 2009.

According to Kim and Bae, the game's initial subtitle, "The Chaotic Chronicle", was developed with the intention to "express the large-scale war, strategies, conflicts, and collaborations that we hope to encourage among players."Lead Game Designer Raoul Kim said that the reason for rendering Lineage II in 3D was "simply because most games today are [also] using 3D graphics", and because they deemed it "more appropriate than 2D for the things that we were going to create." Developers chose to utilize the Unreal Engine 2 game engine because of its capacity to render outdoor scenes and its powerful editing features.According to Game Design team head, Cheol-Woong Hwang, there were different concepts for each of the race's home villages. He described the concept for the human village in Talking Island as "ordinary", while the Elven Village was designed "so as not to lose the natural and royal high-class feeling." They designed the Dark Elven village based on a "grotesque and serious feeling in order to express the rough history of these who had been expelled from the Elves

The game follows a fictional history through sets of plots called "Sagas". There are currently two sagas; "The Chaotic Chronicle" and "The Chaotic Throne". Large-scale updates/expansions known as "Chronicles" are done every six months, which introduce new story elements as well as new features and add-ons. Each chronicle also adds a great deal of new content to the game, including new skills, quests, areas and items; some chronicles also increased the level cap.SettingLineage II is set in the world of its predecessor, Lineage, though the main storyline begins 150 years prior to the events in Lineage. The world of Lineage II is divided into three kingdoms, Aden, Elmore, and Gracia.Aden lies south of the Border Outposts its capital castle is Aden Castle. Elmore lies to the north of the Outposts and encompasses Goddard, Rune and Schuttgart. Its capital castle is Rune Castle. Gracia lies to the west of Aden and Elmore. Aden's geography ranges from deserts to tropical forests. Elmore is more rugged having mostly mountainous regions along with a frozen winter wastelands.CharactersCharacters act as a player’s avatar within the game. Players are afforded up to 7 characters per server. There are currently six races in the world of Lineage II: the Humans-similar to modern-day humans and who have all-around balanced characteristics; the Elves-with superior dexterity, movement, and casting speed, but weaker offense; Dark Elves-with higher magic and melee attack capabilities; Orcs-who have higher HP and MP but slower movement; Dwarves-powerful melee attackers and master craftsmen; and Kamael-humanoids with single wings and gender-specific job classes

To begin playing Lineage II, players create a character as their avatar in the game's medieval-style virtual world. Humans, Elves and Dark Elves start off in the Kingdom of Aden while Dwarves and Orcs start off in the Kingdom of Elmore. Players can choose from either fighter or mystic professions at the start, except for Dwarves and Kamael which are only able to select the fighter profession; this choice acts as an archetype for later profession options. Each race has its own set of classes, even if humans, elves and dark elves have a lot of classes that are very similar to their counterparts in the other two races.As players kill non-player character (NPC) monsters, they accumulate experience points and skill points (SP). As experience points accumulate, the character's level increases, meaning various attributes of the character are augmented. Players purchase and then upgrade their character’s skills using SP. Players can play alone or as part of a group to fight monsters and complete quests for new skills, experience points, and items. Player versus player (PvP) is a significant portion of the game. The game provides many social, political, and economic aspects which are developed through the community and by the actions, in-game, of single players.Lineage II features siege warfare like the original. To make sure PvP stays under control, the design includes a Karma system that provides negative consequences for killing other players when they are not fighting back. When being in a chaotic state (karma number higher than zero), players have a high probability of dropping items after being killed.